Broker pleads guilty to tax fraud

Posted on April 15th, 2009

Florida yacht broker Robert Moran pleaded guilty Tuesday to filing a false tax return to conceal more than $3 million in a Swiss bank account.

Moran, of Lighthouse Point, Fla., failed to note he had UBS accounts on his latest tax filing and failed to report the interest earned on the accounts, according to a report at Law.com. The yacht dealer had access to a shell corporation in Panama, purchased and sold securities through UBS, and converted U.S. dollars to euros, according to the report.

He faces up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, according to the report. His bond was set at $6 million, and sentencing is scheduled for June 26.

Moran was charged as part of a wide-ranging crackdown targeting U.S. account holders with an estimated $17 billion in hidden assets, Law.com reports. He was the second UBS client to be charged.

Yacht industry accountant Steven Michael Rubinstein of Boca Raton, Fla., was charged April 2 with filing a false tax return for failing to report income and assets totaling $6 million in other UBS accounts.